9th November 2003: The first thing
to say is that three points at West Ham is a great three points. It
puts us back on top of the table and is three points won off what
should be one of our promotion rivals. Having said that, they need
to re-learn the art of defending.
Thankfully, Albion managed to do just that within the game. After
some appalling defending in the first twenty minutes, they were relatively
untroubled from then on, although it may have had something to do
with the pressure that the midfield and forwards were exerting at
the other end. West Ham simply crumbled, but huge credit must go to
Rob Hulse.
He has been struggling at home but he was not short of confidence
yesterday. He was very sharp to get the first goal and showed awesome
technique to clast in the second, and Albion were on a roll. The Defoe
sending off obviously helped the cause, but I feel we would've won
anyway, the momentum was unstoppable.
The first division will sit up and take note, both of Albion's resilience
and West Ham's frailty. Albion left to door wide open early on, but
once they shut it, it remained shut. For West Ham, however, Albion
knocked on the door and the whole wall came crumbling down.
It was one of those days you dream about, and the rollercoaster of
emotions was unreal. I feel privileged to have witnessed something
no Albion side has ever done before, and it should spur the boys on
to greater things. It's a shame that we're not playing next week,
although it's better not to play than to play without AJ and JK (AJ
is probably more important at the moment), and it should hopefully
give Hughesie the time to recover fully from that niggling groin problem.
I expect Norwich to go top next week as they face Watford at home,
but let's hope we'll be back on fire when we face Reading at the Hawthorns
a week later in front of the Sky cameras.
Come on you Baggies!!
|
